A Long Reply
by tiger002
Summary: Sometimes in life, a simple reply cannot be given. So instead, roundabout options must be sought to answer a simple question. But sometimes the most convoluted plans are the most satisfying to execute.


**A Long Reply**

One of these days Cody was going to learn that he shouldn't agree to help London with a shopping trip if he wants to be home before midnight. Sure, it was nice being able to go to England, France, and the Tipton's secret mall on the moon all in one day. London even agreed to buy him that fancy new computer that he could use for his research, but after carrying all those bags, his arms felt like they were about to fall off, and he wanted his Christmas break to be a time to relax.

Hearing the ding of the elevator for the 23rd floor made him heave a sigh of relief, but also filled him with dread because now he had to move his legs off the elevator. He had lost track, but he was pretty sure he'd walked at least a marathon today, and his legs really didn't want to do anything close to moving. But still, he stumbled forward, forcing one leg to go in front of the other while the rooms passed by. After the agonizing walk, he got to the room, but struggled to get the card key out of his pocket. He considered just banging on the door so that Zack or his mom would come open it, but at this time of night his mom would probably be sleeping. He really didn't want to wake her, especially if she was having another dream about George Clooney.

So, after longer than he would have liked, Cody got the door unlocked and quietly made his way through the living room, careful not to step on anything that Zack had left out. Looking across the living room, Cody saw a small light coming from the cracked door of his room, telling him Zack was still up, which really made sense since it was before 4 AM.

Still trying to be quiet, he snuck into his room. He was old enough that he didn't really worry about his mom yelling at him for staying out so late, especially since they were on their own during the school year, but some habits died hard.

As he stepped into the room, now walking through the mine field of Zack's stuff, he saw his brother had his laptop out and was at his desk sitting in a position that he didn't think was physically possible, and made it Cody worry about the blood flow to Zack's right ear and left foot. Cody could also hear the sound of heavy metal music coming through his brother's headphones.

"Sup Broseph," Zack said with a wave.

"I see why you told London you were busy," he said, finally making it to his bed where he could collapse.

"So did you get anything for me?" Zack said turning around, to which Cody just responded with the look. "Fine fine," Zack said, turning his attention back to his computer.

"What are you doing anyway?" Cody asked, since it didn't look like Zack was playing a game.

"Reading," Zack said.

That scared Cody.

"Zack," Cody said, forcing himself up out of bed, and he could see that the website Zack was on looked familiar.

"Don't worry, this isn't going to lead to a repeat of the ' _Below Her Decks'_ incident," Zack said.

That made Cody plop back down on his bed. There were some things in life that he really wished were never repeated. Even a rational mind like his could do some stupid things that seem smart at a time when emotions and the internet were involved. "So what are you doing there anyway?" Cody asked.

"Well you know our show is on there too," Zack said, opening up a tab that had a poem in it.

"Anything exciting in it?" Cody asked, a bit of his narcissism coming to the surface wondering what people could be writing about him.

"Not really," Zack said. "Some stories from a Justin Bieber fan and Dark Elements has just started her 800th story in this fantasy series." This comment made a certain author think that he needed to read the last 3 stories in that series. "Oh wait, Sol just posted a Christmas story!"

"I guess things have died down," Cody said, thinking back to when there were several new stories a day, massive collections for every holiday, and even the annual awards to celebrate the best stories of the fandom.

"I did see something interesting though," Zack said.

"What is it?" Cody asked, slowly walking across the room.

"There was a guest review on Tiger's most recent Christmas story, asking what he and us have been up to."

That made Cody wonder. After all, Tiger had posted a Christmas story the past four years, managing to combine his own life and family with that of the twins, even after officially retiring from the fandom. "Think he'll do another one?" Cody asked, hoping this story wouldn't end up with him being in too much pain.

"Well Tiger is off work for a while, and a one-shot doesn't take that long to write. Heck, he could probably do one in an hour depending on how much he cares about spelling," Zack said. "And we all know correct spelling doesn't matter that much, especially when he has nice editors like Wyn who are able to make sense of what he actually wrote"

Cody decided he'd let that one slide. "He still has a few days until Christmas too,"

"Plus I heard that he'd been thinking about how 'that one thing' could fit into a story," Zack said.

"So that means he'll do it?"

"Probably," Zack said leaning back. "Maybe this will even inspire Wyn to write something too."

"Well, that would take a miracle," Cody said.

"You've always said Christmas is the time for miracles," Zack said, and as much as Cody hated it when his brother used his words against him, there might be some truth to them.

"Maybe you're right."

"I do wish Tiger would write more," Zack said, "He had that whole thing he did for NaNo last year that he never posted much of, instead focusing on his anime YouTube channel."

"I guess since he now has shows with characters doing the stuff he'd made us do, he has no need for fanfiction."

"Still, I want to be the one to pilot giant robots and save the world!" Zack complained.

"You know what tends to happen to most of those pilots though," Cody said, while Zack turned back to his computer wondering if there were any mech fanfictions about him and his brother. He then got the idea to write one himself, because as some famous person once said, if a story you want to read doesn't exist you must write it yourself.

"Shut up Cody, the creative process is underway."

"Whatever, I'm going to bed," Cody said turning around while his brother started to bang his keyboard in what seemed like violent ways. But Zack didn't hear him, already lost in thought while the wheels of creativity spun in his head. He thought school would be the best place to start the story, probably at the pool, and then the main character would find a robot, and ancient conspiracy would jump start it, there'd be a quantum computer because those sounded cool, and of course an evil cooperation because you can always blame things on them. Oh yes, the ideas were coming together.

 **A/N:** In case my answer wasn't clear, yes I'm doing a Christmas story this year. And yes this was a review reply cleverly disguised as a one-shot. Though I'm not doing a mech story. Well writing this did get me thinking. But still, I'm not promising anything. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a chapter someone sent me to edit.

Also, if it wasn't clear from the story, I have to thank Wyntirsno for editing this for me.


End file.
